GODKIN, EDWIN LAWRENCE American publicist, was born in Moyne, county Wicklow, Ireland, Oct. 2, 1831. His father, James Godkin, was a Presbyterian minister and a journalist, and the son, after graduating in 1851 at Queen's col lege, Belfast, and studying law in London, where he was also employed by the publishing house of Cassell, was special corre spondent for the London Daily News in the Crimean War. After editorial work on the Belfast Northern Whig, late in 1856 he went to America, writing for the London Daily News letters descriptive of a southern tour. His connection with this journal he continued while studying law in New York. He was admitted to the bar in 1858, and because of his impaired health he and his wife, Frances Elizabeth Foote, travelled in Europe 186o-62. At about this time Godkin was offered a partnership in the New York Times by Ray mond; but although attracted by the offer, he in 1865 carried out a long-cherished dream by founding the Nation. This quickly became the foremost review in the country—as Lowell put it, because of the "ability, information and unflinching integrity" of the editor. Indeed, the periodical was so superior that Charles Dudley Warner styled it the "weekly judgment day." In 1881 Godkin sold the Nation to Henry Villard, owner of the New York Evening Post, of which paper the Nation became the weekly edi tion. Godkin himself became associate editor of the Post, succeed ing Carl Schurz as editor-in-chief, 1883-99, and shaping the policy of that journal. Under his leadership the Post broke with the Republican Party in the presidential campaign of 1884, when Godkin's opposition to Blaine did much to create the so-called Mugwump party (see MUGWUMP), and his organ became com pletely independent. He consistently advocated currency reform, the gold basis, a tariff for revenue only, and civil service reform, rendering the greatest aid to the last cause. His attacks on Tam many Hall were so frequent and so fearless that he was several times sued for libel because of biographical sketches of certain leaders in that organization, but the cases were dismissed. His opposition to "jingoism" and to imperialism was able and forcible. He retired from his editorial duties in 1899. Although he recovered from a cerebral haemorrhage early in I 900, his health was shat tered, and he died in Greenway, Devonshire, England, May 21, 1902.